Apparatus for moving and storing sheet material



P. L. MILLER 2,348,355

APPARATUS FOR MOVING AND STORING SHEET MATERIAL May 9, 1944.

.3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 8, 1945 P. L. MILLER May 9, 1944.

APPARATUS FOR MOVING AND STORING SHEET MATERIAL Filed Jan. .8, 1943 3She ets-Sheet 2 Th 4 m M A fro/m5 YS May 9, 1944. P. MILLER APPARATUSFOR MOVING" AND STORING SHEET MATERIAL Filed Jan. 8, 1943 3 Sheets-Sheet3 O z i INVENTOR. L/V///er Patented May 9, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE APPARATUS FOR MOVING AND STORING SHEET MATERIAL Paul L. vMiller,Clear-water, S. C., assignor to United Merchants & Manufacturers, Inc.,Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Application January 8, 1943,Serial No. 471,766

2 Claims.

This invention relates to apparatus adapted for the transportation andstorage of sheet material during the processing thereof.

One of the applications of th invention is in.

the transportation and storage of sheet material such as textiles duringthe manufacture thereof. In textile operations the fabrics may besubjected to a large number of operations or treatments and it isnecessary in many case to accumulate and store the material after onetreatment and while it is waiting to be subjected to a subsequenttreatment.

The apparatus for effecting the movement of the material involves a pairof rollsto which the material is feed and from which it is delivered.

It is desirable that the material be fed to the rolls and delivered awayfrom them in a satisfactory manner. Frequently the material, instead ofbeing so delivered, tends to wind around the roll, a phenomenon whichmay occur as a result of the development of static electricity whichcauses one of the rolls to attract the delivered sheet material, or as aresult of other attractive forces. For example, sheet material in wetcondition tends to cling to one of the rolls instead of being deliveredaway therefrom.

' material to this space and it packs therein in In accordance with thepresent invention means 7 I are provided to overcome the problem thuspresented. Such means include a pair of cylindrical rotatably mountedrolls, at least one of which has a plurality of annular grooves arrangedin spaced relation on the surface thereof. Cooperating with thesegrooves there is provided guide means which are received in the groovesand are adapted to guide the sheet material away from the grooved roll.The guide means may comprise a plurality of fingers suitably mounted as,for example, on a bar extending parallel to the axis of the' groovedroll, the fingers being arranged in spaced relation and extendingtransversely of the axis of the roll into the annular grooves. By thismeans sheet material, as for example textile fabric whether in wet ordry condition, may be fed to the rolls and satisfactorily deliveredtherefrom without danger of clinging to the rolls. In many cases it willbe suflicient to provide one of a pair of rolls with the guide meansdescribed.

The invention includes the combination of a pair of rolls equipped withsuitable guide means agabove described, with receiving and storagemeanswhereby sheet material delivered from the rolls may be efllcientlyconfined and stored pending the subjecting of said stored material to asubsequent operation. Such combination pleated form.

The principles of the invention will be defined in the claims andillustrative embodiments thereof will be described in conjunction withthe v accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a pair-of rolls one of which is grooved as above described;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary yiew of a portion of Fig. 1; I v

Fig. 3 is a view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1

showing means for feeding sheet material to the rolls and delivering ittherefrom to a storage basket, together with means for driving the lowerroll;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the rolls illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3and 5;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a view showing the combination of a pair of rolls equippedwith guide means, with a storage compartment elongated vertically;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6oexcept that the storage compartmentis elongated horizontally; and I Fig. 8 is a view of apparatus a part ofwhich differs from that shown in Fig. '7 in respect of one of the guiderolls and guide means associated, therewith,

Referring first to Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive, the roll I is provided withtrunnions 2 rotatably mounted in bearings 3 carried by upright endsupports 4 and 5. Each of these supports has upright guide portions 6and I in which bearings II) are mounted to slide vertically. In thesebearings are rotatably mounted trunnions I2 secured to and carrying theupper roll I l. The upper roll therefore rests by gravity on or floatsupon the lower roll I. A pulley I5 is suitably secured to the lower rollI and is driven by the belt I6 which passes over the pulley I! on theroll I and the pulley I1 secured to the shaft 18 of the motor I9.Therefore, as between the rolls I and ll, the former is the driving rolland the latter the driven roll.

As more clearly shown in Figs. 1, 2, 4 and 5. the lower roll I isprovided with a plurality of annular grooves 20, these grooves havingaxes which lie in planes perpendicular to the axes of the rolls and thegrooves being in spaced rela-' tion, as shown. Cooperating with thegrooves 20 are a series of fingers, pins or flange 2| which may beintegrally secured to and mounted upon a bar 22 extending between theend vertical supports 4 and 5 and secured thereto. These fingers extendinto and are received by the slots or grooves and may terminate, asshown, in portions 24 in spaced relation to the base or bottom of thegrooves. The end portions 26 of the fingers 2| may have a contour ofsubstantially the same characteras that of the opposed surface of thebottom of the groove into which the finger 2| extends. The forward orleading vertical edge 26 of the finger 2| may be arranged substantiallytangential to the cylindrical surface of the roll I although it may beoffset from such tangential position, as illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4.

The surface of the roll I may advantageously be made of somewhatresilient material, as for example hard rubber or various syntheticplastic compositions, particularly wherethe upper roll M, which may be asteel roll, rides upon the lower roll I and one method oi building theroll I including the grooved surface will be described asses inconnection with Fig. 5. The trunnions 2 are secured to cast metallicheads 21 upon and to which there is secured, as for example byshrinking, a hollow steel cylinder 28, to which in turn is secured asurface coating 29 of rubber or other plastic material. In this surfacecoating 23 the annular grooves are then cut to a depth of, say,

extend at an angle to the diameters A, B of th rolls 36 and 36 shown inFig. 6, so that the leading edges of the fingers 2| lie in planes whichare divergent in respect of each other. Adjacent the bars 22 of thecompartment 46, there is provided in the latter an opening 42 throughwhich the sheet material may be delivered from the rolls 36 and '36 inthe said compartment 46 for storage p p ses. I

In the operation of the apparatus shown in Fig. 6, the sheet material 32is fedbetween rolls 36 and 36 which are rotated in the direction of thearrows in order to deliver the sheet material away from the rolls afterpassage therebetween and to the space between the fingers 2|. The twosets of fingers serve to guide the sheet material through the opening 62into the compartment 46. As the material accumulates in the compartment66 the accumulationthereof offers a certain amount of resistance to thedelivery of the sheet material by the rolls into said compartment, as aresult of which the sheet material assumes a pleated form therein. Itwill be seen that this phenomenon makes it possible to store or pack arelatively large volume of sheet material into a relatively small space.The compartment 46 may be as long as desired and the continuous feedingof the sheet material 32 by the rolls 36 and 36 will cause a continuousadvancement of the pleated, stored material upwardly in the direction ofthe arrows shown therein.

Referring to Fig. 7, the construction of the parts thereof is similar tothat shown in Fig. -6. except that the compartment is shown horizontallyinstead of vertically to illustrate a means of continuously advancingthe stored material in the compartment ll! in a horizontal direction.Indeed, the stored material may be advanced in about five-elghths of aninch. The thickness ofthe coating is about seven-eighths of an inch.

In Fig. 3 the roll 36 serves to feed the sheet.

material 32 to the rolls H, and the basket 34 collects the materialdelivered from the said rolls.

In the operation of the device shown in Figs. 1 to 5, sheet materialwhich may, for example, be textile, material in wet or dry condition, isfed over the roll 30 and between the rolls and I4 by means of pulley l6driven by the pulley on the motor shaft It. The rolls are rotated in adirection shown by the arrows in Fig. 3 so as to deliver the sheetmaterial away from the rolls and into the basket 34. Any tendency of thesheet material 32 to cling to the roll I is compensated for, by thefingers 2| which effectively act to prevent such clinging action.

Referring now to Figs. 6, 'I and 8, there'will now be described anapplication of the above described principles in combination with meansfor temporarily storing sheet material in process. Referring to Fig. 6,each of the rolls 36 and 36 may be constructed similarly to the rollillustrated in Fig. 5. Rolls 36 and 36 are shown in section, the sectionbeing one corresponding to that taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 5. Each ofsaid rolls '36 and 36 is provided with annular grooves 20. Cooperatingwith each of said rolls 36 and 36 is a series of fingers 2 Each series2| is mounted on a bar 22 secured to the end wall 36 of a storagecompartment 46. It will be understood that the fingers 2| shown in Fig.6are mounted upon the bars 22 in the same general manner that the fingers2| are mounted upon the bar 22 shown in Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive.extending parallel to a diameter of the rolls as s own in Fig. 3. for ea p the 891? ll may any desired direction.

It is not necessary in all cases that the compartment I! be providedwith confining means on all sides thereof. Particularly when saidcompartment is longitudinally elongated in a direction extendingdownwardly from the rolls, the top of the compartment may be open.

Referring to Fig. 8, the arrangement here is somewhat different. Thecompartment III, roll 36, fingers 2| and bar 22 are arranged generallysimilar to the arrangement shown in Figs. 6 and 7. So also the roll. 36may be constructed with grooves similar to the rolls 36 and 36 shown inFigs. 6 and 'll=. However, the guide means which are received in thegrooves of the roll 36 are different from the ers 2|. As shown in Fig.8, a roll 43 is rotatably mounted to run loosely in bearings carried bythe bracket 44 secured to the compartment". This roll may be provided inany suitable way with a series of annular grooves However, instead ofcorresponding to the grooves in the rolls 36 and 36. For every groove inthe roll 36 there is a corresponding groove in the roll 43 and a seriesof endless belts 46 are mounted to run in the grooves in the roll 43 andthe corresponding grooves in the roll 36. These belts constitute guidemeans for the roll 36 as dlstinguishedirom the series of fingers 2|which constitute the guide means associated with. the roll 36. In theoperation of the apparatus shown in Fig. 8, the sheet material 32 is fedto the rollswhich are rotated in the direction of the arrows, in orderto feed the sheet material away from said rolls and to the guidemeans2|, 6, from which said sheet 'material is delivered to thercompartment42 wherein it is stored in pleated form snd'advances in the direction ofthe arrow.

Iclaim: 1. Apparatus .for the transporation and storage of sheetmaterial during the processing thereof,

comprising a pair of rotatably mounted cylindrical rolls mounted side byside, each of said rolls having a plurality of annular grooves in thecylindrical surface thereof and arranged in spaced relation, the axis ofthe grooves lying in planes perpendicular to the axis of the rolls;guide means associated with each roll; the guide means associated withat least one of said rolls comprising a plurality of fingers arranged inspaced relation, and extending transversely of the axis of said groovedroll and into said annular grooves, said fingers being mounted on a barextending parallel to the axis 0! said grooved roll; means to rotatesaid rolls to deliver said sheet material upwardly between said rollsand to said guide means; and vertically elongated receiving and storagemeans located above said rolls having an end portion, adjacent saidguide means, adapted to receive said sheet material, and side portionsadapted to confine and store the same in pleated configuration.

2. Apparatus for the transportation and storage of sheet material duringthe processing there- 0!, comprising a pair of rotatably mountedcylindrical rolls mounted side by side, each of said rolls having aplurality of annular grooves in the cylindrical surface thereof andarranged in spaced relation, the axi of the grooves lying in planesperpendicular to the axis of the rolls; guide means received in thegrooves of each roll and adapted to guide said sheet material away fromsaid roll; means to rotate said rolls to deliver said sheet materialupwardly between said rolls and to said guide means; and a verticallyelongated receiving and storage means located above said rolls having anend portion, adjacent said guide means, adapted to receive said sheetmaterial from the guide means, and side portions adapted to confine andstore said sheet material in pleated form. I

PAUL L. MILLER.

